Although this series was created in 2002, it contains information from the period 1938 through 1946.

Part of:

Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration

Function and Use:

The agency converted the Army Serial Number microfilm of computer punch cards to electronic form to support the military records reconstruction project. This file resulted from a subsequent project to prepare the records for use in the Access to Archival Databases project.

Scope & Content Note:

This series contains records of approximately nine million men and women who enlisted in the United States Army, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. Although incomplete, the records contain data for a majority of the enlistments in the United States Army during World War II. The bulk of the records conform to the format found on War Department Adjutant General's Office (WD AGO) Form 317 (Enlistment Card) for the period ca. 1941-1945, and WD AGO Form 372 (Enlistment Card) for ca. 1945-1946. Additional records contain data originally recorded on Enlisted Reserve Corps (E.R.C.) Statistical cards. In general, the records contain the serial number, name, state and county of residence, place of enlistment, date of enlistment, grade, Army branch, term of enlistment, longevity, nativity (place of birth), year of birth, race, education, civilian occupation, marital status, height and weight (before 1943), military occupational specialty (1945 and later), component, and box and reel number of the microfilmed punch cards.

Known gaps exist in the records. The file contains the following serial number ranges: A-001219 (WAC) through 1-814-015 (WAC), 00-001-099 through 12-249-074, 12-256-521 through 13-055-711; 13-056-075 through 14-190-244, 14-200-332 through 17-059-205; 17-059-208 through 18-122-477, 18-136-584 through 30-100-174; 30-100-175 through 32-333-703; 32-333-705 through 32-685-260, 32-732-562 through 33-336-219; 33-336-221 through 34-151-377; 34-151-379 through 35-059-730; 35-059-732 through 35-359-517, 35-424-000 through 35-991-720; 35-991-723 through 36-066-230, 36-106-809 through 36-487-999, 37-103-674 through 37-108-148, 37-338-373 through 37-420-579, 37-518-555 through 37-526-303, 37-564-707 through 37-580-369, 37-587-974 through 38-042-405; 38-042-406 through 38-250-853, 38-257-682 through 38-332-826, 38-340-717 through 38-348-917, 38-380-081 through 38-387-768, 38-496-665 through 38-504-463, 38-512-238 through 38-543-353, 38-551-092 through 38-574-473, 38-666-845 through 38-763-115, 38-772-844 through 39-265-119, 39-280-003 through 39-379-104; 39-385-633 through 42-015-410, 42-022-216 through 42-226-331, 42-254-214 through 42-261-860, 43-028-500 through 44-165-443; 44-165-444 through 45-999-999, 46-168-860 through 46-086-354 of supplemental records. In addition, the scanning system was unable to interpret 160,390 groups of one or more punch cards within the valid ranges.

Access Restrictions:

Unrestricted.

General Note:

These records are an electronic version of the series "Army Serial Number File, 1938-1946."In 1994, NARA contracted with the Bureau of the Census for a special conversion project which later resulted in the creation of the series "Electronic Army Serial Number Raw Files, 1994-2002." To create the series "World War II Army Enlistment Records, 2002," the series "Electronic Army Serial Number Raw Files, 1994-2002" were merged into a single file. This processing combined the first two reads of the punch card images into a single "best guess" record and stripped the files of the box header records, end of file and blank records. The box and roll data were placed at the end of the cleaned up record. The records with the value ONE OR MORE CARDS WERE UNREADABLE AT THIS LOCATION are retained in the file at the position where they originally occurred.Each record contains the combined readings from the first two scans of each enlistment punch card although each card was scanned up to ten times. While these additional scans may have produced additional information from the card, NARA did not use a more complex algorithm to include the information from these subsequent scans to create a better "guess" than what currently appears in the series "World War II Army Enlistment Records, 2002." Therefore NARA has retained the series "Electronic Army Serial Number Raw Files, 1994-2002," should researchers want to re-process the raw data with the information from all of the scans and to try to create a file with possibly more accurate records.